Product Description

There is much to be discovered in Europe! Many roads lead to success in this exciting travel game -- you just have to find the right one. Exchange your cards cleverly and find your way through Europe quickly to win.

In early 2003, Schmidt
Spiele released Europa Tour,
a game
designed by Alan Moon and Aaron Weissblum. In my review, I
described it as “Rack-O with a
geography lesson”. Although the
game was short on strategy – as is Rack-O – I still found it
to be
quite enjoyable, particularly in a family setting or as a
light filler
between meatier games.

Shortly after the game’s release, Out of the Box
announced that
it would be releasing two new versions of the game, both set in
different geographical locations: Africa and
the United
States.
Now, nearly two years after their release, Out of the Box has
introduced a third installment in the series: 10 Days in
Europe.

Since all three games utilize essentially identical
mechanisms, I
thought it would be wise to discuss the entire series in this
review. I’ll mention the differences between the versions where
appropriate. You may also notice that much of the
description of
the games’ mechanisms is similar to that used in my review of
Europa Tour; no sense reinventing the wheel! Well, unless, of
course, you happen to be Goodyear!

The comparisons to Rack-O are inescapable. However,
instead of
attempting to get numbers in the correct sequence, players must
plan a cohesive and logical vacation through the countries of
Africa / Europe / U.S.A. This vacation will be planned by each
player on their private rack, into which they will place the
country
and transportation cards in attempts to form a logical path for
their whirlwind tour.

The racks in the Out of the Box versions are constructed of
sturdy wood. This gives the game quite a bit of weight. They
are linear as opposed to the curved plastic racks in Europa
Tour,
so they do occupy a bit more table space. Still, the feel
of those
hefty racks is quite nice!

The tiles, too, are very thick and nicely illustrated.
The tiles in the
Europe version were initially stuck together, and took a bit of
work to separate. Fortunately, they were not marred. Each tile
contains a snippet of information about the country or state,
including its capital, population and geographical size.

Unlike the board in Europa Tour, which was so small that
it made
it difficult to distinguish the various countries, the maps
in the
Out of the Box versions are large and colorful. The various
countries are easily distinguishable, with the colors used
being
bright and very distinct. Not all of the countries in
Africa or
Europe are depicted on the map, with several of the
geographically smaller nations being deliberately omitted to
better facilitate game play. None of the 50 states in the
U.S.A.
version were omitted, although future expansions may delete
California and Louisiana, as they are both likely to slide
into the
sea sometime in the near future!

On all three maps, the countries and states are divided into
various groups by easy-to-distinguish colors. Missing is the
delightful cartoon artwork that was endemic to each of the
countries in the Europa Tour version. Granted, that likely
would
have cluttered the boards a bit, but it was amusing trying to
figure out the meaning of each of those drawings.

Countries (or states) can be connected in one of three
ways:

Land: If countries / states are geographically adjacent and
share a common land border, then they are considered
adjacent. In the Europe version, there are lines connecting a
few countries that are separated by a narrow sea. For example,
England and France are connected in this fashion, apparently in
recognition of the “chunnel”.

Air: If two countries / states have the same color, they
can be
connected by an air route, provided a player places an airplane
card of the same color between the two countries on their
rack.

Car: Any two countries / states can be connected by car,
provided there is one intervening country or state that shares a
common border with both of those countries or states. For
instance, a player can travel from Texas to Kansas by car, since
Oklahoma shares a border with both of those states. Of course,
a player must place a car tile in their rack between the
Texas and
Kansas tiles.

Ship: The new Europe version does not contain cars.
Rather, it
contains ships that can traverse one of three seas: Atlantic,
Mediterranean or Baltic. Any two countries that border the same
sea can be linked by the appropriate ship.

The game begins with each player randomly drawing tiles
one-at-
a-time from the face-down stacks until their racks are
filled to the
ten tile capacity. As in Rack-O, a player may not move tiles
around within his rack. Once they are placed, they will
remain in
that position unless discarded on a future turn. The challenge,
then – and the frustration – is to get them into the proper
sequence.

From the remaining tiles, three are revealed and form the
“draw”
piles. On a turn, a player may select one of the three face-up
tiles, or take the top card from the face-down draw pile.
He must
then discard a tile from his rack and replace it with the newly
drawn tile. Or, if he so chooses, he may simply discard the
tile he
just drew.

The idea is to form a connected network of countries /
states.
Countries (or states) that share a land boundary need no
intervening form of transportation between them. However, if a
player wishes to travel by air between two countries, these
countries must be of the same color and a player must play a
plane card of the same color in his rack between those two
tiles.
There are only two plains of each color in the mix, so this
can be
tricky. If a player wishes to travel by car between two
countries
or states, the player must place a car tile between those two
countries or states. Remember, there must be an intervening
country or state between these two which shares a common
border. Car tiles are not color-sensitive. Since many
countries
and states share common borders, it is possible to reach
numerous other countries or states via the use of an
automobile. Thus, these tiles are very valuable and should be
scooped at every opportunity. They rarely go to waste. Ship
tiles work in a similar fashion, but the ships are limited
to specific
seas as listed on the tiles.

The first player to complete his vacation by logically
connecting all
ten tiles on his rack is victorious and enjoys the fruits of
a will-
planned vacation.

My summary of these three games is the same as that of Europa
Tour. These new versions are not rocket science. There are no
deep levels of strategy or numerous tactics to be employed.
That doesn’t mean, however, that they are completely bereft of
strategy. One should place tiles so as to keep as many options
available as possible. For instance, in the Africa game,
placing
Chad of the Democratic Republic of Congo near the center of your
rack is usually a wise move since these are connected by
land to
numerous other countries. Madagascar, on the other hand, is
much more restrictive, with only two land connections. So,
spot
the countries that give you the most options and try to utilize
these in your rack.

Further, when discarding a tile from your rack, you are
usually
free to discard it atop any of the three revealed stacks of
tiles.
Try to cover tiles that you don’t wish to use, but which may be
beneficial to your opponents. This will thwart their plans and
often force them to completely rearrange their itinerary.

As in Europe Tour, there is certainly a degree of frustration
involved. It can be quite maddening to never have the tile or
tiles you need surface, or to have them scooped by an opponent
before you have the opportunity to grab them. Often, you find
yourself being forced to re-plan your itinerary, which is time
consuming and fraught with its own perils. And, there is
always
this nagging feeling that your opponents are one step ahead of
you in the rust to complete their vacation plans. These
elements
are what makes the game “click”, however, and help make the
game quite enjoyable and moderately tense.

The game can be played with 2 – 4 players and is quite
enjoyable with any number. With two players, however, it is a
bit more strategic, as you can plan your discards and
control your
tile choices with a bit more certainty. Maneuvers can be made
wherein you discard a tile, only to pick it up on your next
turn in
order to position it in your rack more advantageously. With 4
players, this tactic is much more difficult as the
likelihood that the
discarded tile will be taken or covered by an opponent before
your next turn arrives is far greater.

However, there is no escaping the fact that, like Europa
Tour,
these versions are primarily light, family games. Don’t
enter it
expecting it to rise to the same level as meatier games such as
Age of
Steam or Puerto Rico.
Rather, these games are much
more appropriate in family gaming situation or as light fillers.
Further, there is a healthy dose of luck involved, and some
folks
might find this aspect not to their tastes. I’ve always enjoyed
Rack-O, however, so I can enjoy any of the ”10 Days” games for
what they are: Rack-O with a geography lesson.

Short summary of the above review - I loved the system
and still
often continue to play it, mainly with my wife, as the 10
Days system
is one that just works incredibly well as a "couple" game.
As soon as
I brought 10 Days in Europe home, we immediately cracked it
open -
expecting more of the same enticing play.

Europe is currently my favorite of the series - the map
of the
countries just lends itself to this type of game more than
the others,
and the addition of Ship Tiles are more interesting than the
car tiles
in the other game. Let's briefly discuss these:

- The map has countries that often border quite a few
other countries.
The Ukraine is connected to nine other countries, as is
Germany.
Other countries touch five or six countries, making them
very valuable
for a player to have. Some of the more critical countries -
Germany,
France, Norway, Russia, and Spain - all have two tiles each,
as does
Denmark, although I'm not sure why. There is only one card for
Ukraine and Serbia, which makes getting them a bit luckier;
but it
seems to even out during the game.

- There are several countries that touch only one other
country, such
as Portugal, Ireland, Wales; and one that touches none -
Iceland.
This difficulty can be mitigated by airplane tiles, although
this is
difficult, but is more easily vanquished by the Ship Tiles.
There are
nine ship tiles that are split up amongst the three major
bodies of
water: Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea, and Baltic Sea.
Players can
place a ship tile between any two country tiles that both
border the
sea. The map designates the seas in different shades of
blue, so that
it's obvious which countries touch which sea. The Baltic
Sea is the
smallest but can be critical, as the countries up there have
fewer
countries that border them. The Atlantic Sea should never be
discarded, if possible - it's that useful. It's Iceland's
best friend
and also helps connect the British Isles much more easily.
I'm almost
ready to say that the Atlantic Ocean tiles are TOO powerful;
but since
there are four of them, it evens out fairly well.

- A few countries are connected by "ferries" - black
lines on the
board. Any person familiar with Risk will
recognize these, as they
basically make the two connected countries adjacent. They
really
don't affect the game much - other than noticing them.

And that's basically all the differences in this version (the
automobile tiles are not in Europe). To the casual
onlooker, there
might seem like there are some wild disparities between the
countries
- some have many connections, others only a few. Yet it all
fits
together in an elegant, fun way. Now, I'm not going to tout
how 10
Days in Europe makes the other two games obsolete. But it
is a little
better; and if you only get one of the games, it's certainly
the most
interesting that I've found. Personally, I'm glad to own the
triology, because it's like having three delicious varieties
of the
same game. If you enjoyed the other two but want something
different,
then Europe delivers. If you've never played any of the 10 Days
series but are looking for a game to introduce you to the
simplistic
system, then 10 Days in Europe is your best bet.

The Moon and Weissblum team have been cooking up quite a
few things lately, and Europa Tour represents the lighter
end, but not the lightest, of their recent output. The goal
is simple: create a continuous tour of Europe by getting ten
connected cards in a row. Cards consist of countries (one
card per country), ships, and airplanes. The first player to
create a connected tour wins.

Each player has a plastic form that holds the ten cards
in tour order, and begins with ten face-down cards. One at a
time, these are placed into your form but once placed they
cannot be moved. When play begins, players choose from one
of five face-up cards or draw blind from the deck, and they
can replace one card in their form with the new card. Sound
vaguely familiar? Yes, this is a modern take on Rack-o,
but done in a better and more enjoyable form. The airplanes
and ships add to the updating, too.
The board shows a map of Europe with countries in five
colors. Some countries have shipping lines that extend from
their borders and connect to specific other countries. A
tour is connected if you can walk from one country to
another (they share a border), take a ship between the two
(three cards total: departing country card, ship card, and
arriving country card), or fly between the two (three cards
again: departing country card, airplane card in the same
color, arriving country card of the same color). Ships and
airplanes cannot start or end the tour, but they give good
flexibility within.
The five cards available for choosing can be stacked as
play continues. If I draw from the deck, for example, the
card I return to the table can cover an existing card.
Staying flexible in the game is important early on; those
who wait for the only country that can connect each end of
their form are likely to be disappointed. It is better to
build the middle of your tour first and move toward the
ends, rather than try to connect in the middle. As play
proceeds, you get some information about what others are
doing but usually not enough to affect your own play. Most
games end before the initial card stack is depleted, and
what looks like a complete unconnected mess at first can
quickly move into a logical approach with the right country
or airplane card.
The board is printed on both sides, one showing the
country names in German and the other side showing the
country names in their own language. The cards show both
names, and either side will help the
geographically-challenged learn which countries are close to
others. I strongly recommend taking the board to a color
copying machine and reducing it 50%, then making a copy for
each player. This makes the game easier to play and allows
each player to plan their tours without giving away what
they're looking at.
Marcia and I have played this as a two-player game
requiring a twenty-card tour, and I recommend it this way.
The card distribution is the same as a four player game, but
having twenty spaces gives some good flexibility and it
really doesn't last much longer than normal. This concept
has obvious applicability for other continents as well, so I
expect that soon we'll be seeing tours of new places.
Europa Tour is fun and given the Spiel des Jahres's
voting over the last few years I would not be surprised to
see this nominated or even make the top three. The game is
light enough to play with families or in schools but has a
dose of strategy in the card selection and replacement to be
comparable to jury favorites like TransAmerica.
Along with New
England, this gives the Alan/Aaron team a solid one-two
punch.

Other Resources for Europa Tour:

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